mario April 3rd, 2020

We’re wearing masks now.

It’s something we’d been thinking of for awhile now, but a combination of the CDC discouraging their use and a desire to not disrupt the supply chain of medical-grade protection kept us away from it. But it seems as if the federal guidance is about to shift to recommend some sort of face protection, with a basic cloth mask covering the nose and mouth seeming to be prudent.

Some have derided this action as unnecessary and insufficient to protect against the disease completely, but the’re full of shit and I’m ready to tell them so now. Any protection is better than no protection; this is what doctors have been told in the absence of PPE, and in the face of the sick and dying, no less. And since we don’t even know if we’re sick due to the high rate of asymptomatic infections, and since someone with COVID-19 can disperse it just through the saliva that expels from breathing in the presence of others, a mask feels like a perfectly reasonable precaution to limit the spread, even if only marginally.

Other countries have figured this out weeks or months ago. Americans need to get onboard and normalize the wearing of masks by healthy people. The curve will never flatten if we don’t start taking this much more seriously, much more quickly.

I’ll see you at the supermarket. When I desperately need supplies. In my mask.

Tags: COVID-19

• Day One , Health
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mario March 23rd, 2020

Two weeks ago, I caught a sinus infection on the return flight from Disneyland (before the parks were closed down for health concerns; the trip feels like a lifetime ago). Since hospitals and doctors’ offices are getting slammed right now, I knew that making an appointment would not be prudent, so I called and requested an antibiotic prescription (they seemed grateful to have me not clutter their office and get others sick).

Throughout the entirety of my medication period, I took my temperature, sometimes several times a day. I wanted to keep tabs on how my illness progressed, and of course look out for possible COVID-19 symptoms in case my infection was weakening my immune system enough for another viral invader to take purchase (fortunately, this was not the case, and my typical old season-and-travel-influenced nasal drip ran its course as expected).

In the course of taking my temperature and adding the results to the Health app on my iPhone for tracking, I wrote up an iOS shortcut that I could trigger the temperature input via Siri. Maybe someone else will find some use in this, so here’s a link (requires permission to write health data, obvs).

Since I was recording my temperature like crazy, I now have fun visualized data!

Got a lot of high 96°F ratings which felt a bit low as a baseline, but then again, I never have this volume of body temperature data available to me, so perhaps I run cooler than I thought. Only got to 99° once and that was after a much-needed outdoor walk, so I’d chalk that up to a slightly elevated heart rate. Average of 97.44° is within expected ranges and also happens to align with the average temperature in recent studies.

So after all that, no fever (and no COVID-19; I’ve been sheltering in place since I got off that plane, especially as the global pandemic started to ramp up). Only some fun with data collection. Which, as self-quarantine activities go, isn’t the worst way to pass the time.

Tags: COVID-19, iOS, Shortcuts

• Day One , Health , Tech
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mario February 16th, 2015

Today I watched the San Jose Steamrollers play power soccer (a soccer variant played with power wheelchairs), and figured I’d do a sports writeup on their two games. Because I can!

vs. BORP: 1-0
vs. Hollister Free Wheelers: 2-2

Jairo Solorio scored a fantastic goal against BORP. The Strike Force chairs are generally superior on the court when it comes to maneuverability, but Jairo’s chair packed more mass and allowed him to simply push through the defenses and nudge the ball over the goal line.

Hollister’s Chad Bojorquez squeezed in an early first goal for game two, but San Jose quickly retaliated when Ryan Connolly pulled off a slap-shot from halfway down the court, too fast for the Hollister goalie to respond. The Steamrollers then pulled ahead after Matthew Arensdorf passed the ball across the goal to Jairo, who nudged it in before Hollister could intercept, but Hollister tied it up again when Bojorquez knocked the ball through a gap between players. Despite Hollister’s aggressive push for the goal, some near-misses on their part combined with blocks from Steamrollers goalie Jenny Mitchell helped maintain a tied score at the end.

[discuss]

• Day One , Sportsball
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